Separating tanks have been used for industrial purposes for decades. Some of the earliest versions allowed for very simple processes such as settling solids to the bottom of a tank containing a liquid suspension. Other separating tanks used stirrers, flotation devices, skimmers, and various filters to remove one substance from another (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,039,447 (Miura 1977) shows magnetic plates in a tank for separating solids from waste water). Over time, chemical, electrical, and more advanced mechanical processes have made separating tanks more efficient. One particular kind of separating tank is the separating bar tank utilizing specialized elongated bars that move through a mixture at a controlled rate. The separating bars are “active” within the mixture in that they change the mixture physically, chemically or electrically to remove a target substance from a mixture. In other words, the separating bars are engineered for a particular purpose in removing a target substance from the mixture at issue.
As separating tanks have become more prevalent in industrial settings, engineers discovered the expediency of utilizing moving bars in tanks for separation purposes. The bars had increased surface areas due to their cylindrical shapes and offered more opportunities for contacting greater volumes of a mixture simultaneously. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,403 (Dorgathan 1980) shows a separation tank utilizing bars for magnetic separation. Dorgathan arranged the bars in an immobilized wall through which the mixture flowed. Magnetic materials collected onto the bars and a scraping mechanism cleaned the collected materials.
Later mechanisms included an apparatus set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 6,066,255 (Anderson, 2000) which shows a conveyor belt with cleaning scraper bars connected onto the belt. The conveyor belt has a filtering mechanism and the bars remove collected sediment that has been filtered from an industrial cooling fluid.
Modern separation tanks utilizing bars moving through a solution are shown in patent literature by Bratten. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,638,430 (2003); European Patent No. 1,123,741 (2001). Bratten utilizes bars moving through a mixture in a tank but connected by a chain controlled by a motor. In this regard, Bratten shows a magnetic separator and a process using “a train of parallel, spaced magnetic bars connected together to form a closed loop” within a mixture. The bars are shown as being made of stainless steel tubes with magnetic portions therein. Bratten's bars are consistently shown as connected by links in a chain.
Because prior art separating bars are connected, the systems of earlier separation tanks require all bars to move at the same rate in continuous fashion. This allows for no customization other than the mere speed of the chain holding the bars together. A need exists in the art for separation tanks using separating bars that move independently, allowing for more optimization in the number of separating bars in a given system, the rate at which bars move, and the position of each bar at particular places within the mixture. In other words, a need exists in the art for a separation device that is scalable and customizable for more diverse applications and less cumbersome maintenance.